[PSX 2015] “Stories: The Path of Destinies” Hands-On

Undeniably one of the most colorful games on the show floor, Stories was one of most welcome surprises at the PlayStation Experience. Stories: The Path of Destinies is an action RPG very much in the vain of Supergiant Games’ Bastion….

Here’s a look at just one of the lavish worlds you’ll be trudging through in Stories.

Undeniably one of the most colorful games on the show floor, Stories was one of most welcome surprises at the PlayStation Experience.

Stories: The Path of Destinies is an action RPG very much in the vain of Supergiant Games’ Bastion.  It even has its own narrator that covers your every move. The main different is whereas Bastion was pretty much a dungeon crawler, we can’t say the same about Stories yet, but it’s definitely more open.

The game stars Reynardo, an airship flying Fox.  It’s up to you as to whether or not he’s good or bad, as the game has multiple paths and the way you play the game affects the rest of the story.

I wasn’t at PAX, so I’m not sure as to whether or not the demo I played was the one that had the 20 or so endings just about every other publication has been talking about.  The introduction of the demo we played had you pick one path or the other during the storybook cutscene, with no real indication as to whether it’s the good or evil path.

In any case, I started in a grassy woodland and followed what seemed like a linear path that led to different enemies.  Despite it being an action RPG, the action was hardly comparable to a game like Diablo.  Instead, it felt more like Shadow of Mordor or the Batman Arkham games where you primarily tap on the square button while tilting the control stick wherever you wanted to strike.  A lot of people find this approach bland and boring, but as someone that thinks of gaming as a sort of relaxation, I was fine with it.

We don’t have anything clever to say. It’s just funny.

Eventually I came to a puzzle where I had to move windmill like platforms to continue to traverse the path.  It was tricky for a while, but after I solved it, I came to an artifact that ended the level.

I got a chance to talk to Spearhead Games Co-Founder Malik Boukhira after my short playthrough and he admitted that the demo was fairly bareboned and that we could expect to see more depth when the game comes out as there’s a weapon upgrade system as well as a method of upgrading them that sounded an awful lot like the materia system from Final Fantasy VII.

In any case, I came away pleased and really can’t wait to get into more depth with the final game’s story when the game comes out early next year.